Phalombe sets up Cholera response plan

Phalombe District Health Office has put in place a practical strategic plan for responding any Cholera disaster this year as the rainy season is at its peak.

The district is one of a few that are affected by the waterborne diseases every year; a problem that is usually attributed to Lake Chilwa that lies on part of the district’s land.

In an interview on Tuesday, the District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO), Kennedy Kanyimbo said in view of the extent to which the district was pounced upon by the outbreak last year, the health office came up with several interventions that would help it in containing the disaster shall it occur again this year.

“With assistance from our partners we have trained health workers in Cholera prone areas on how to handle Cholera patients in a way that reduces spread of the disease. We have also supplied health facilities in those areas with working materials and medicines that are needed in times of a Cholera attack,” he explained, adding that they had erected temporary quarantine shelters in the same health facilities to support the plan.

Kanyimbo indicated that some Non-governmental Organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) had also pledged to deliver some consignments of health supplies to the district.

During the 2015-2016 rainy season, Phalombe registered its first Cholera case towards the end of December 2015, and afterwards 96 other cases were handled by health personnel along the first months of 2016, of which one patient died.